Android Processor Comparison: Kirin 980 vs Kirin 970

Android Processor Comparison: Kirin 980 vs Kirin 970

Nov 19, 2018

Excited about the latest processor for Android? You should be, because it will change the way that you use your HONOR phone. Read this to find out why.

Every so often, a step change comes along in the world of computing. When it does, it leads to advances that we mere mortals could not have foreseen. Keeping up with the blistering pace of modern technology is the job of some very clever people indeed. That is just as well, because the technology is so mind-boggling that it would take a PhD to even scratch the surface. So, we can be thankful that HONOR has access to plenty of those super boffins. They are always useful to have around, especially when they make breakthroughs like the new AI processor Kirin 980, which is set to revolutionise the way we use our phones. Again.

Processors are all about speed, and speed is all about size. Back at the start of computing, in the early part of the second half of the twentieth Century, computers were huge. Like, really huge. What was effectively a glorified calculator would literally take up an entire room and use tons of electricity. As computers got smaller, they were able to get faster too, and do more with the energy they used.

Skip forward a few decades and chips are now manufactured on a scale that is invisible to the naked eye. And that makes them very fast and very powerful, yet also very energy efficient. And each time that scale gets smaller, it represents a leap forward in terms of what is possible. The new Kirin 980 is manufactured on a 7-nanometre scale, as opposed to the Kirin 970's 10-nanometre basis. This world first means that more processing power can be squeezed into each wafer of silicon, which is a good thing for us.

To put this into some sort of context, the Kirin 980 fits 6.9 BILLION transistors into a 1cm x 1cm square. The new chip increases performance by 20%, but reduces power use by 40%. It sounds impossible, but it's very, very real.

One of the most powerful features of HONOR phones is their incredible cameras. By harnessing Artificial Intelligence, HONOR phones can recognise what they are seeing and adapt constantly to give you the best photographic results. Now, with the Kirin 980, they will be able to do that faster. The part of the system that works this magic is called the Neural Processing Unit, and the Kirin 980 will have a new dual-core version, providing a massive uplift in performance on these tasks. It will be able to process 4500 images every minute – a 120%-improved recognition rate. This allows the chip to 'see' the joints and lines of the human body in real time and adapt accordingly, which translates to amazing pictures every time, even in tricky shooting conditions, such as dancing or athletics.

Not content with that, HONOR have improved phone signal connectivity too. This means that the phone signal will stay locked on for longer in difficult areas, like on trains. And it even makes GPS locations more accurate too.

The Kirin 970 (HONOR's first mobile AI computing platform) is an amazing processor driving the stunning HONOR 10, HONOR View 10 and HONOR Play phones. And, since the Kirin 980 is another step forward for HONOR's engineers, you can be certain that you'll yet again be blown away by the phones that have the new Kirin 980 at their heart!

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